Embrace
by SixesandSevens
Summary: This is a fill for a prompt on LJ 'Some folks in the group are playing are a rousing game of truth or dare. Someone is dared to give Daryl a hug. And not some pansy one-second hug either. A real hug.'


_AN: This was written spur of the moment, so I hope it's to standard! :)_

How these events came about was debatable. Maybe it was the fact that they finally felt safe, able to let their guard down a little, at least this once. Possibly, it was the lack of entertainment to be had given the destruction of the world. Or perhaps it had something to do with the large cache of liquor they'd come across, and decided to dip into. But no matter how it happened, here it was; a room full of adults, lounging about, all at varying degrees past the point of tipsy, and playing truth or dare of all things.

Everyone was more relaxed than they'd been in ages. The prison had become their home, and though it'd taken a while, as of today, it was finally 100% walker free. It was a good feeling, and time to celebrate. They'd even let Carl partake some, he was teetering slightly on the couch, valiantly trying to disguise his drunkeness. Lori was the only one who wasn't drunk. All she'd had was a small glass of wine, having remembered that an occasional glass of wine during pregnancy was okay'd by her doctor when she was carrying Carl.

"I dare you to..." Andrea looked around the room at the faces of her circumstantial family trying to decide what a good dare would be. He gaze stopped on Daryl who was huddled in an armchair, part of the circle, but also removed from it. A mischievous smile graced her lips as he watched her watching him, and he eyed her suspiciously. "...hug Daryl."

Silence. Everyone stared at her, then at Daryl, who was sinking into his chair uncomfortably, willing it to swallow him up and away from those searching looks.

"What?" Glenn asked, as if he didn't quite believe his ears.

"You heard me." Andrea smiled at him, only slurring her words a little, "And not one of those 'man hugs' either. A real, honest-to-god hug. It has to last 15 seconds, at least."

Everyone began sending furtive glances between Glenn and Daryl. Some were snickering, others looking surprised, maybe even a little uncertain. Uncertain of what? The outcome of this whole idea of hugging Daryl?

Daryl was watching their reactions before he became fed up, "What? I'm so repulsive to ya'll that you think a stupid hugging dare is just so damn hilarious and, for Korea here, especially appalling?" They were giving him strange looks that he couldn't quite decode. "That's right. I know words."

"No, Daryl, that's not how I meant it at all." Andrea told him earnestly. "You can just be standoffish, I thought it'd be fun." Then she grinned, adding playfully, "I bet you could both use a hug!"

Maybe it was the alcohol in their systems or the sense of fun in the air, or more probably, a little of both; but the whole group started chanting, "Hug! Hug! Hug! Hug!"

Glenn and Daryl looked at each other from across the room, silently asking what the other thought, then each sighed. As if they'd planned it, they each grabbed one of the various liquor bottles strewn about the room and downed several gulps in tandem, causing them to sway upon standing. Given that they were both already well on their way to drunk, chugging a handful of shots worth was probably not the wisest course of action. They both just stood there waiting for the other to make a move. Daryl smirked, knowing at this point, walking would be tricky.

"It's your dare," he stated, inciting chuckles from their audience. Glenn couldn't help but smile at the taunt and stumbled over to Daryl. He held his arms out to hug the older man, but misjudged his momentum, and instead of a simple hug he essentially body slammed Daryl.

Sober Daryl would have stood up to this as though Glenn were a gnat trying to fly into a brick wall. But tonight he wasn't sober. He was hammered. They toppled in a tangled heap, lengthwise over the arms of the chair Daryl had recently vacated, rolling off of it onto the floor. The room erupted into drunken laughter. Even Glenn and Daryl were in hysterics, still caught up in their disheveled hug.

Still laughing, they began to try to disentangle themselves but Andrea shouted, "Keep hugging! This counts!" So they just laid there on the floor, in some rendition of a comical embrace, laughing along with their friends.

Finally the laughter died down, and Daryl and Glenn tried to get up off the floor and remove themselves from each other's arms. It was clumsy. It was hysterical. And by the time they finally became two separate people again, the room was lost to another drunken uproar. They were even joined on the floor by Andrea and Rick, who'd managed to topple off their chairs.

Once they'd all finally composed themselves, Daryl looked around, seeing faces happy and flushed from drink and laughter. Faces of his friends; his Apocalypse Family. He actually had a place here. For the first time in his life, he belonged. He'd slowly been coming to this realization, but tonight finally made him see it.

"Well, it's my turn." Glenn was looking straight at the orchestrator of the last several minutes, trying and failing miserably, to look annoyed. "Andrea. Truth or Dare?"

Daryl watched as Andrea grinned, and thought that despite everything that'd happened, maybe life wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
